News » Competitions 2014

(From a recent Harmonia Early Music newsletter -- by Elizabeth Clark Posted November 30, 2014)

"On October 11, 2014, five early music ensembles performed in Early Music America’s Baroque Performance Competition. This hour on Harmonia, we’ll hear from all five finalists, including the 2014 Grand Prize winner. Plus, ...

"On August 30, Los Angeles Opera presented the finals concert of Plácido Domingo’s Operalia, the world opera competition. Founded in 1993, the contest endeavors to discover and help launch the careers of the most promising young opera singers of today. Thousands of applicants send in recordings from which forty singers are chosen to perform live in the city where the contest is being held. Last year it was Verona, Italy, this year Los Angeles, next year London. ...

As with previous years, the singing competition will take place during the "Innsbruck Festival of Early Music"

"The International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera Pietro Antonio Cesti will take place in Innsbruck for the fifth time. Named after the Italian composer Pietro Antonio Cesti, who turned Innsbruck into a centre for the Italian opera north of the Alps in the mid-17th century, young singers from all over the world with a special talent and training will compete in the varied field that is the baroque opera for participation in the final concert on 21 August. ... "

"Yesterday, the XIX. Leipzig International Bach Competition 2014, ended with a concert in the Leipzig Gewandhaus. For ten days, 100 musicians from 28 countries competed in the categories piano, harpsichord and violin/Baroque violin for the title »Bach Prize Winner«. As the youngest finalist, 18-year-old Hilda Huang (USA) won the piano category, Schaghajegh Nosrati (Germany) and Georg Kjurdian (Latvia) came to the second and third position. Jean-Christophe Dijoux (France) achieved the title in the harpsichord final, followed by Olga Pachchenko (Russia) and Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya (Russia). The first prize in the category violin went to Seiji Okamoto (Japan), the second to Marie Radauer-Plank (Austria), and the third to Niek Baar (Netherlands).

"Workshops suitable for beginners and more advanced practitioners will include sessions on chant notation, chant by ear, ancient hymnody and psalmody, ornate chanted antiphons, and choral music for contemplative quiet. ...